Russia Denies Visa to Rights Group Leader in Days Before Report

MOSCOW — Human Rights Watch released a report here on Wednesday accusing the Kremlin of using a host of bureaucratic rules to hinder the work of nonprofit organizations. The group did not have to look far to find what it said was a fresh example of the problem: Its own executive director was denied a visa to come to Moscow to present the report.

The executive director, Kenneth Roth, who is based in New York, instead addressed a news conference in Moscow by telephone, noting that this was the first time that the Russian government had refused to issue a visa to an official of Human Rights Watch since the fall of the Soviet Union.

Referring to nongovernmental organizations, Mr. Roth said, “This is an unfortunate illustration of precisely the kind of harassment of NGOs that we have documented.”

The Russian Foreign Ministry would not comment on the visa denial.

Human Rights Watch said in its report, “Choking on Bureaucracy,” that although the Kremlin had pushed through tighter regulations in 2006, it had not conducted a broad-based campaign to close nonprofit organizations, as some had feared. Instead, officials have forced the organizations to comply with the regulations’ onerous requirements, making it difficult for them to operate, the report said. And it emphasized that groups that scrutinized Kremlin policies or were opposed to them tended to receive the harshest treatment.

The report said that under the 2006 rules, organizations typically must seek government approval to take on additional responsibilities or conduct new activities. Yet officials can withhold permission if the extensive paperwork that is now mandated has been prepared “in an inappropriate manner,” a category so broad that it can include minor typographical errors.

Russian officials have defended the way they regulate the organizations, saying that the rules are no harder to comply with than those in Western European countries. Human Rights Watch disputed that assertion and said studies by international experts had found that the Russian laws were particularly restrictive.

The nonprofits include not only domestic groups, but also offices of international organizations.

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page A9 of the New York edition with the headline: Russia Denies Visa to Rights Group Leader in Days Before Report. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe